Dedicated to all the men and women who have fought in armed combat, and in particular:

My father, Frederick George Theodore Eyre, who died on 2 March 2004, aged 85. Served in Borneo, West Papua and Rabaul during the Second World War. He spoke very, very little about his war service during his lifetime.

His brother, Percy Walter Ellis Eyre, who died on 23 October 1942, aged 22, in the Battle of El Alamein.